Should The termination of the employment contracts of the entire staff of a company as a result of the death of the employer be considered as Collective Redundancies?

Comentario a la STJCE de 10 de diciembre de 2009, asunto C-323/08

Abstract

The dismissal whether it is individual (disciplinary or objective) or collective, explicit or implied, implicates and manifests or presumes a volitional element in the one who fires. In any case, when it comes to terminations of employment contracts that occur or are produced on the employer´s initiative, there is a common element constituted by the fact that they must derive from a conduct or a phenomenon attributable to him.

However, the termination of the employment contract is a consequence the employer´s of death or decease. That volitional element does not exit matter due to an ontological matter that is previous and constitutesan assumption not of the manifestation of corporate will but of the very existence of the will, the physical and biological preexistence of the physical person of the employer and consequently the preexistence of his legal personality.

Therefore, the sentence reviewed determines that the termination of all contracts of a company derived from the death of the employer does not constitute collective redundancies and cannot be considered as such.